This only works on OSM right now, but after everyone adds all the trails, it will likely be the most accurate mapsets we've seen. I would guess that other services like Google will start pulling data from OSM as these corrections start to roll out more if they aren't already.

I'm a bike racer and use Strava with it, ran across this tool they developed to help with mapping.
It basically "averages" (it's mathematically much more complicated than that) all the tracks for an activity and lets you slide the OSM paths to the that line. It cuts the time it takes to add trails by like 75% and they are very accurate now.

Their data set is huge and IMO it would be worthwhile creating an account and uploading every on-trail GPS track you have to contribute to this project.

The only catch I've discovered so far is that it cuts off switchbacks so I fix those manually still. Remember to check you work like you always have, the whole world is depending on you.

I've just done the PCT up to Lolo Pass and will be concentrating on completing the Oregon Gorge trails after I do my taxes.

Last night I did everything in the Gorge from Eagle Creek to the farthest east trails in the Hatfield Wilderness Area, most supporting trails, and some roads. I should be able to finish the whole Oregon side of the Gorge tonight. It generates a lot of data so it's seeming to take longer than usual to render live.

Koda wrote:Wow, the OSM map trail data seems to have improved since I last checked, also NF and Wilderness lands added (but not State Forest and BLM lands…).

So when is OSM going to add their excellent toposm map layer for the USA? Lets face it, OSM will never be taken seriously for outdoor use until they put out a quality topo map layer.

I don't know anything about the future of the toposm layer, but it's nice. GaiaGPS has a vector topo product that rivals the USGS maps, it would be nice to see that roll out to the community.

I've just finished the Mark O. Hatfield Wilderness trail alignment, trails may not be named correctly and there are a few mystery areas left. But there are absolutely not maps anywhere nearly as accurate as I've just put in there which I think is totally awesome BTW.

There were plenty of old USFS mapped trails that are over 1500 feet off (notably Horsetail Creek, Moffet Creek/Tanner Creek Trails) and lots of junctions in the wrong place (no wonder people have to burn their clothes to stay warm). Even Eagle Creek is all wrong on every other map. The only other viable options for routing come from Google, so there is definitely a use for OSM outdoors, you just have to overlay it on some usable topo.

I hiked a section of the PCT yesterday that I aligned with this tool and it was really nice to see my track actually overlay the trail on OSM.

I also zipped up the Coyote Wall / Catherine creek area today. I'm not sure what to do with the "closed" trail as it's actually one of the "hottest" trails on the heat map there.

It's quite useful for field guide maps now too. The main issue is the update interval that routing services utilize to update from OSM

Graphhopper is generally the source for all OSM routing and they update every few days it seems, a week at the most, so that's where I go if I want the latest updates. Graphhopper is also good if you need to force a route to follow roads, paths, trails that other routing software won't work on.

It's there. I stopped censoring what gets put there as it's a map, not an exclusive playground. Plus if they are truly decommissioning it, I think it's even more valuable to have it accurately mapped for posterity - for when someone decides they want to find the old trail 20 years from now.

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